Tiebreakers. The first criteria in the breaking of ties in the standings shall be head-to-head competition of tied teams. The following procedure will be used to establish the postseason championship seeds when ties exist. (Last Updated 2015-16)

Ties Involving Two Teams.

Results of head-to-head competition during the regular season.

Each team's record vs. the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings, and then continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to that group's own tiebreaking procedures), rather than the performance against individual tied teams. The lone exception to this guideline would be if there are only two tied teams in the group placement and one of the teams won both regular-season games. In this instance, the tie is deemed broken and comparison of the seed rather than the placement will be utilized.

A comparison of the tied teams Conference-games only road record.

A comparison of the tied teams Conference-games only road record vs. the team(s) occupying the highest position in the final Conference regular season standings, and then continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to that group's own tie breaking procedure), rather than the performance against individual tied teams. The lone exception to this guideline would be if there are only two tied teams in the group placement and one of the teams won both regular-season games. In this instance, the tie is deemed broken and comparison of the seed rather than the placement will be utilized.

Draw. In the event tiebreaking procedures are unsuccessful and a draw is necessary in determining any portion of seeding, the following procedure will be used:

The draw will be conducted in public or with media attendance.

Institutions involved in the drawing have the right to have a local representative in attendance at the drawing.

A single slip of paper for each institution (with name or logo) will be placed into a container and will be drawn in order of seeding from highest to lowest.

Ties Involving More than Two Teams.

Results from the collective head-to-head competition during the regular season among the tied teams in a mini round-robin format, ranking the tied teams by winning percentage from highest to lowest will be used to determine the seeds.

If during this process two teams remain tied with the same winning percentage, the two-team tiebreaking system is used, starting with head-to-head results.

If during this process more than two teams remain tied with the same winning percentage, a second mini round-robin format is implemented, ranking the remaining tied teams by winning percentage from highest to lowest to determine seeds. If the teams remain tied, then the two-team tiebreaking system is used, starting with head-to-head results.

If more than two teams are still tied, each of the tied team's record vs. the team occupying the highest position in the final regular season standings, and then continuing down through the standings, eliminating tied teams with inferior records until one team gains an advantage.

When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to that group's own tiebreaking procedure), rather than the performance against individual tied teams. The lone exception to this guideline would be if there are only two tied teams in the group placement and one of the teams won both regular-season games. In this instance, the tie is deemed broken and comparison of the seed rather than the placement will be utilized.

If more than two teams are still tied, a comparison of the tied teams Conference-games only road record.

If more than two teams are still tied, a comparison of the tied teams Conference games only road records versus the team(s) occupying the highest position in the final Conference regular season standings, and then continuing down through the standing until one team gains an advantage. If at any point the multiple-teams tie is reduced to two teams, the two-team tie breaking procedures above will be applied.

When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to that group's own tie-breaking procedure), rather than the performance against individual tied teams.

If at any point the multiple-team tie is reduced to two teams, the two-team tie- breaking procedures above will be applied.

Once a team is eliminated from a multi-team comparison, it is dropped from further comparisons.